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In the News

Domestic Fuel

July 27, 2015

By Cindy Zimmerman

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) will once again partner with the Buffalo Chip Campground at the 75th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which will be held Aug. 3-9 in Sturgis, South Dakota. More than 1.5 million motorcycle enthusiasts are expected to attend the event this year for the big anniversary and RFA Vice President for Industry Relations Robert White the event offers a perfect venue to dispel some of the misconceptions about the use of ethanol blended fuel in motorcycles.

“We do that around the “Free Fuel Happy Hours,” said White. “From Sunday August 2nd through Thursday August 6 from 1 to 4 pm, any motorcyclist can come up and fuel for free with 93 octane 10 percent ethanol.” This is the fourth year that RFA has sponsored the free fuel happy hours and White says it also offers them the opportunity to talk one on one with bikers and provide them with information about ethanol.

In addition, White says messages about ethanol can be found throughout the Buffalo Chip Campground during the rally. “We have everything from banners to commercials on the Jumbotron at the main stage and we sponsor the Essentials Guide that goes out to every camper this year,” said White.

The event sponsorship has become more important in the last 2-3 years as the oil industry has worked with the motorcycle association to spread misinformation about 15% ethanol, which is not approved for use in motorcycles – a fact which is stated clearly on all pumps that sell E15. But White says the information they provide goes beyond motorcycles. “If there is 1.6 million or more people there, they all own lawnmowers, cars, trucks, SUVs, boats back at home,” he added.

Read the original story here: Ethanol to Help Fuel 75th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

Biofuels Digest

July 27, 2015

By Jim Lane

In Washington, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy addressed the Corn Congress and said that ““you might’ve heard we’re trying to shrink or kill this [RFS] program. But the truth is, we’re committed to growing it. The volumes we’ve proposed for 2015 and 2016 are designed to bust through the blend wall.” She added that “our proposed 2016 standard for total renewable fuel is about 1.5 billion gallons more — almost 10% higher — than the actual 2014 volumes,” she added. “And the proposed 2016 standard for cellulosic ethanol is six times higher than what the market produced in 2014. So EPA isn’t just promoting growth; we’re pushing the envelope.” The agency’s comments period for the RFS comes to an end today (July 27), and the EPA has committed to finalizing the 2016 Renewable Fuel Standard by November 30th.

The Administrator added, “We know the delay last year in getting these standards out was disruptive to say the least. I apologize for that.”

Read the original story here : EPA Administrator To Corn Farmers : [Our RFS] Delay...Was Disruptive To Say The Least. I Apologize For That

Star Tribune

July 24, 2015

By David Shaffer

The nation’s first new corn ethanol plant in more than five years — in Spiritwood, N.D. — has gone into commercial operation, its owner said Friday.

Dakota Spirit AgEnergy, 78 percent owned by a Minnesota cooperative power company, is a 65 million-gallon-per-year ethanol plant built next to one of the ­electric utility’s coal-fired power plants. It supplies steam to produce the biofuel at significant energy savings.

The $155 million ethanol refinery, 12 miles east of Jamestown, N.D., came in on budget, with construction costs of $135 million and $20 million in financing costs and working capital, said Greg Ridderbusch, the Minnesota-based president of the ­ethanol operation.

“We have found a way by co-locating with industry to generate power more efficiently and with less environmental impact than an ethanol plant by itself or a power plant by itself,” said Ridderbusch, who also is a vice president at Great River Energy, the Maple Grove power cooperative that is majority owner in the North Dakota plant. “It is state of the art in the use of energy and emissions.”

The technology doesn’t reduce the release of greenhouse gases, but offers a lower rate of carbon emissions for the energy output. Roughly 60 percent of coal’s energy gets used at Spiritwood, compared to 30 to 35 percent at a ­typical coal generator.

Most of the nation’s 212 ethanol plants were built in the last decade in response to federal policies encouraging blending of ethanol at the pump. But the biofuel building boom faded by the decade’s end. Three of the last corn ethanol plants were built in Minnesota in 2009. Other recently built ethanol plants are cellulosic versions that produce the fuel from corn cobs and stalks, but not the kernel.

The North Dakota plant will produce 20 percent of the motor fuel used in that state, the company said. Since motor fuel typically is a 10 percent ethanol blend, Dakota Spirit will need markets out of state. Ridderbusch said one unit train of 100 tank cars — similar to an oil train — likely will be loaded every 18 to 20 days and head to eastern markets on BNSF Railway. BNSF’s main line, the same one used by Bakken oil trains, runs through central Minnesota and the Twin Cities.

Dakota Spirit expects to purchase 23 million bushels of corn annually, the company said. Besides fuel, the plant expects to produce 198,000 tons of distillers grains used as cattle feed and 6,900 tons of industrial corn oil used mainly in feed and to produce biodiesel. The plant has 38 employees.

“The Dakota Spirit AgEnergy biorefinery is an important investment for North Dakota because it adds value to the state’s production agriculture industry, expands our renewable energy offerings, and creates jobs and economic opportunities for our people,” North Dakota Gov. Jack ­Dalrymple said in a statement.

It is the second ethanol plant developed by Great River Energy, a power supplier to 650,000 Minnesota customers in 28 local co-ops that own the utility. Its other biofuel plant, Blue Flint Ethanol, is next to the company’s Coal Creek power plant near Underwood, N.D.

Both ethanol plants take waste steam from their adjacent generators. The Spiritwood coal-burner also supplies steam to a nearby malt plant owned by Cargill Inc.

For Great River Energy, the investment in an ethanol plant came largely out of necessity. As the utility planned its Spiritwood generator, it counted on steam sales to operate the power plant economically. When the $437 million generating plant was finished in 2011, another company’s plan to build an adjacent ethanol plant had fallen apart.

In an unprecedented step, Great River Energy immediately mothballed the new power plant, whose electricity wasn’t needed after a recession-driven drop in demand. When the power plant finally opened last year, the ethanol plant was under construction, with Great River Energy leading the ­project. The utility sold a 22 percent stake in all its ethanol operations to outside ­investors for $17 million in 2014.

The older Blue Flint plant produced record profits last year, adding $28 million to the utility’s bottom line. Now, the ethanol industry faces challenges because of lower fuel prices and higher corn costs. Unlike many older ethanol plants with paid-down debt, Dakota Spirit enters the market with the higher cost structure of a newly financed plant. But Ridderbusch said he has no ­concerns.

“In this industry, you can never time it,” he said.

Read the original story here : Minnesota Electric Co-Op Opens Ethanol Plant In North Dakota

Domestic Fuel

July 24, 2015

By Cindy Zimmerman

The deadline for submitting comments to the Environmental Protection Agency on the proposed Renewable Fuel Standards for 2014, 2015, and 2016 is Monday, July 27.

EPA administrator Gina McCarthy encouraged members of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) meeting in Washington DC last week to make their voices heard during the comment period. “Keep talking, keep communicating, take advantage of the public comment process,” she said. “This was a proposal, this was not a final rule, so tell us what you think. That way we’ll be able to produce a final standard that is based on all of the best information and data available.”

NCGA has made it a priority to get growers involved in commenting on the EPA proposal, sponsoring rallies at the EPA’s public hearing last month in Kansas City, Kansas and on Capitol Hill last week. NCGA president Chip Bowling says they are doing everything possible to help their farmers make their voices heard. “Anyone out there in the countryside can send their comments to EPA,” said Bowling, who notes that they can also send your comments to the EPA through the corn growers website ncga.com/rfs. “We don’t have a whole lot of time to get your comments in but we could really use them.”

Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) president and CEO Bob Dinneen says everyone who has a stake in the ethanol industry should send in comments on the proposal. “EPA needs to be hearing from farmers, from consumers, from renewable energy advocates across the country,” said Dinneen. “We made a difference before when we got EPA to not finalize a flawed program. We need to make a difference again.”

Read the original story here : Comment Deadline For RFS Proposal Is Monday

Want to send the EPA your comments? Click here to send your message.

The Gazette

July 22, 2015

By Erin Murhpy

DES MOINES — Using corn-infused gasoline helps strengthen the country’s national security, a trio of retired U.S. generals said Wednesday.

Gen. Wesley Clark, Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton and Brig. Gen. Steven Anderson spoke to reporters Wednesday in Des Moines to express their support for the Renewable Fuel Standard, a federal mandate that the nation’s fuel supply contain a certain percentage of corn-based ethanol.

The generals appeared on behalf of VoteVets.org, a national advocacy group for veterans issues.

Clark said the nation must do what it can to reduce its dependency on foreign oil.

“For that, there’s nothing better than the Renewable Fuel Standard. It is the smartest, best energy strategy that America has ever devised,” said Clark, a four-star U.S. Army general and NATO Supreme Allied Commander who ran for president as a Democrat in 2004. “It was passed under the administration of President George W. Bush. It had bipartisan support in the United States Congress. And now the implementation, the follow-through is being questioned. By who? By people whose economic interests want us to remain addicted to importing foreign oil.”

The federal Environmental Protection Agency may reduce the amount of ethanol required in the nation’s fuel supply.

That would be a mistake with national security implications, the three generals said Wednesday. They encouraged Iowans to express to the federal government their support for the standard and to press presidential candidates visiting the first-in-the-nation caucus state to do the same.

“Unfettered access to energy is a vital national interest, regardless of the country,” said Eaton, a U.S. Army general who trained Iraqi troops during the war in Iraq.

The less the U.S. relies on foreign oil, the less the country will have to involve itself in foreign entanglements involving oil-rich countries, the generals said.

“My experiences in Iraq have taught me that our addiction to oil is putting our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines at tremendous risk overseas,” said Anderson, who served for 31 years in the U.S. Army. “While I was a senior logistics officer working for (Gen. David) Petraeus in 2006 and 2007, I was bringing upwards of 400 fuel trucks a day to sustain our oil addiction, because we didn’t have any other systems other than carbon-based systems. Everything ran off of oil. Everything ran off the generators. Everything was carbon-based.”

Anderson said that reliance on oil put “incredible pressure” on the U.S. military in combat zones and put American troops at risk. He said approximately 1,200 American troops died moving fuel in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Opponents of the fuel standard argue the federal government mandate intrudes upon the free market.

“Unfortunately, most of my Republican counterparts don’t understand that it’s not about getting cheaper oil or other sources of oil, it’s about weaning the addiction to oil,” Anderson said.

Read the original story here : Retired U.S. Generals : Protect Renewable Fuel Standard

Ethanol Producer Magazine

July 21, 2015

By Bob Dinneen

The U.S. Constitution, one of the most important documents in our nation’s history, begins with three simple, yet very powerful, words: “We the people.” Over the course of my career, I have been fortunate to work on behalf of the people. I have also had the pleasure of working with people who are passionate about the biofuels industry. Folks who wholeheartedly believe that renewable fuels can reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil and revitalize rural economies.

In August, Washington, D.C., changes character, transforming itself from a bustling city into a more sedate town. August is when members of Congress return to their home districts and states. While at home, these members often host town hall meetings where they give their constituents—their people—an update on what is happening in Congress, take questions, and listen to concerns.  After all, as public servants, members of Congress are supposed to represent the people.

But members of Congress are not the only representatives of the people. Our government institutions are also charged with looking out for the best interests of the people. In June, officials from the U.S. EPA traveled to Kansas City, Kansas, for a public hearing that gave the agency a chance to hear what the people had to say about the agency’s implementation of the renewable fuel standard (RFS).  People from all walks of life, from farmers in the heartland to academics in our nation’s largest cities, attended the hearing because they wanted the EPA to hear their voices.  And what the EPA heard was a near unanimous chorus of frustration with the way the agency is implementing the RFS. Conrad Clement of Conrad Clement Farms summed up the feeling of those in attendance when, during his testimony, he called the RFS “America’s most successful policy in 40 years,” but charged that the EPA was “tearing [the RFS] apart.” Clement urged the EPA to “endorse the original RFS as it was.”

I’ve said time and time again that there is nothing wrong with the RFS that cannot be fixed by what is right with the RFS. All the EPA has to do is to implement the statute as Congress intended. But instead of setting the renewable volume requirements at the levels that Congress established, the agency is proposing to cut them by 20 percent, or a total of 11.3 billion gallons, over the course of three years. I can assure you that the oil companies will happily fill the void with gasoline and diesel fuel refined from dirtier and more costly sources of crude oil.

Under the RFS, ethanol produced at current levels has virtually wiped out our nation’s need to import finished gasoline, reducing these imports from 600,000 barrels per day a decade ago to near nothing today. Ethanol also drastically reduces greenhouse gas emissions, removing the equivalent of 8.4 million cars from the road each year. Instead of building on the success of the RFS, however, the EPA showed in its proposal that it clearly bought into Big Oil’s false claims that ethanol has reached its saturation point at a 10 percent ethanol blend, and that higher-level ethanol blends, such as E15 and E85, are not yet available enough to justify a higher blending requirement.

The EPA proposal is creating a tsunami of RINs. When EPA considers whether the supply of renewable fuel is “adequate” to meet statutory volumetric requirements, stocks of RIN credits must be taken into account. After all, RINs represent gallons of renewable fuels that were produced and are part of the physical fuel supply. To completely dismiss carryover RINs from the determination of available supply is not only illogical but also creates disincentives for investing in pumps and technology. The EPA needs to let the RIN market work as intended to drive investment and innovation.

I commend the EPA for going to the heart of the conversation and holding the hearing in the Midwest, but the agency cannot simply discard the comments at the next convenient opportunity. The EPA must listen to the voice of the American people, who have an outspoken desire for a strong RFS, and not the oil industry.

Read the original story here : EPA Must Listen To The People On The RFS

Mankato Free Press

July 17, 2015

By Nancy Madsen

JANESVILLE — U.S. Rep. Tim Walz told ethanol producers at the Guardian Plant on Friday that he would share the truth about modern ethanol production in Congress.

“Many times, we have this Minnesota Lutheran thing where we do a good deed but we don’t talk about it because then it doesn’t count,” said Walz, DFL-Mankato.

Ethanol, a type of fuel for vehicles made from fermenting corn, is clean energy made at home, a win-win, he said.

The producers described recent improvements to ethanol processing. “Our engineering guarantees were a yield of 2.75” bushels per acre, said Guardian CEO Mike Jerke. “We’re beyond that now, we’re producing at 2.85.”

The natural gas input needed to process the corn has dropped from 30 to 25 British thermal units per gallon. And the plant does not discharge any wastewater.

“That was not expected,” Jerke said.

There is some evaporation, but the rest is reused and recycled in the system.

The Janesville facility turned 43 million bushels of corn into 120 million gallons of ethanol last year.

Ethanol plants take the corn, grind it and mix it with hot water and enzymes to get the corn’s starch to turn into sugar. After adding yeast and other ingredients, it ferments in tanks for about 2 1/2 days.

The fermentation creates about 14 percent alcohol, which becomes ethanol. Byproducts are put to other uses.

In the plant’s control room, Brandon Larson showed Walz and others on the tour the computerized controls and the data — flow, temperature and pressure, just to name a few — that he watches to make sure the processing is running smoothly. Walz asked him and other employees on the tour where they grew up, how they started at Guardian and what training they had.

“I don’t have an ideological dog in this fight,” Walz said. “I have an economic dog in this fight. We’ve got young people out there looking to find middle-class, skilled jobs.”

Encouraging innovation and rural production are means to allow young people to stay in rural America, he said. Guardian employs 43 people.

Ethanol producers at the tour said that other interest groups, such as petroleum companies, are spreading misinformation when they say that there is a limit on how much ethanol can be sold each year given constraints on how much can be blended into each gallon of motor fuel. This is called a blend wall. They said ethanol is cleaner than oil for the environment, cheaper for consumers and better for engines.

“Once you’re out of the Cities in Minnesota, a large amount of folks get it,” Jerke said. “But it’s a very independent industry and our ability to speak with a common voice is big.”

Walz said that many in Congress are simply ignorant on ethanol’s benefits, having been fed information from other interests.

“There’s your voice, but then there are 15 lawyers from oil companies lined up outside my door to present their point of view,” he said.

The bulk of corn and soybean production areas are represented by 28 members of Congress, “fewer than southern California,” he said.

And that has led to recent policy disappointments for the ethanol industry, including a reduction for the 2015 and 2016 renewable fuel standards by the Environmental Protection Agency, which will require 13.4 billion gallons of ethanol be blended in this year and 14 billion gallons next year, down from Congress’s mandate of 15 billion gallons.

We have capacity to produce more,” Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association Executive Director Timothy Rudnicki said. “The EPA has gone off track again.”

Minnesota has 21 ethanol plants that produce 1.1 billion gallons of ethanol, the association said.

Walz said he would be looking for ways to raise the standard again and help ethanol producers.

“It’s in the nation’s interest to create energy at home, it’s in the nation’s interest to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and it’s in the nation’s interest to reduce our carbon footprint,” he said.

Read the original story here : Walz Touts Economic, Environmental Benefits At Janesville Plant

Walz visit to Guardian Energy

July 17, 2015

Today, Congressman Tim Walz visited local biofuels plant, Guardian Energy in Janesville, to highlight the importance of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and all-American energy solutions as a driver for the middle class economy.

“It’s places like this that increase our national security, grow our local economies, and create jobs and prosperity for the middle class,” Walz said. “We have the best economy in the country here in Minnesota. That doesn’t mean we get to rest, it means we have to work even harder to keep it that way. And energy production will play a major role pushing our economy to new heights. That’s why the RFS is so important. It’s working to help middle class Minnesota families, while reducing our dependence on foreign oil at the same time.”

According to the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association, in 2014, the ethanol industry in Minnesota:

  • Supported 18,630 jobs
  • Contributed $2.34 billion to the state’s GDP
  • Generated $7.6 billion in gross sales
  • Generated $1.74 billion in household income
  • Contributed $132 million to state and local communities through taxes

“Congressman Walz’s visit today highlights his commitment to clean renewable biofuels and the RFS,” Tim Rudnicki, Executive Director of the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association, said. “Thanks to the RFS, Minnesota’s ethanol industry contributes over $2 billion a year to the state’s economy, supports nearly 20,000 jobs, and reduces CO2 emissions as well as our dependence on foreign oil.”

The Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association notes a University of Illinois study that found, E10 (fuel with 10 percent ethanol) reduces 712,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually in Minnesota. If all gasoline (currently E10) consumed in Minnesota (2.4 billion gallons per year) was switched to E15 (fuel with 15 percent ethanol), an additional 358,000 metric tons of annual CO2 emissions will be eliminated. According to the EPA’s greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator, the combined total of CO2 savings of 1.07 million metric tons is the same as removing 225,895 vehicles from Minnesota’s roads.

“As we strive to move towards and energy independent future, we’ll need to utilize all our sources of homegrown energy. This includes biofuels, wind, and solar, among others,” Walz continued. “I firmly believe Minnesota is positioned to lead the world in clean, all-American energy production. Let’s find ways to seize on this opportunity, create jobs, and continue to push our economy forward.”